Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Motor controllers are devices or groups of devices that function to control the operation of an electric motor. A motor controller connected to a motor may start or stop the motor, select forward or reverse on the motor, select or regulate the speed of the motor, and regulate or limit the torque of the motor, among other functions. A motor controller may include a switch or set of switches to connect a motor to a power supply. The switch(es) may have several different positions or combinations to select different electrical connections. When selected, the different electrical connections may cause the motor to operate in various ways, such to start or stop, or to forward or reverse, as noted above. Further, rapid switching of the electrical connections, such as by a pulse width modulated signal, may vary the speed of the motor.
Some motor controllers use metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) as switches to control operations of the motor. Motor controllers may use a particular type of MOSFET known as a power MOSFET, some of which are designed to handle the significant power levels that may be associated with motor operation. To increase the power handling capability of a motor controller, the motor controller may include multiple power MOSFETs that are connected in parallel. Then, a power amplifier known as a gate driver may drive the parallel MOSFETs.